National Network of Libraries of
Medicine
Pacific Northwest Region

Quarterly Report

November 2001 - January 2002

A. Network Programs

1. Health Professional Access to Information
Services

Videotapes of the CDC satellite teleconferences on
bioterrorism that were held in November and December 2001
were acquired and added to the lending library. We
publicized their availability and received 14 requests
from Pacific Northwest libraries to borrow them.

2. Assess Needs of Health Science
Librarians

3. Network Membership Program

The first stage of updating DOCUSER and local People
database records for network members was completed. All
members were contacted and given four opportunities to
check and correct their directory data: a general e-mail
via the PNRNews mailing list; an individualized e-mail to
those who did not respond to the general e-mail;
individualized letters to those who did not respond to
the e-mails; and phone calls to the remainder. The
DOCUSER and People files are as ready as they can be for
generating membership certificates and for our new
directory.

DOCUSER records were created for the 14 Affiliate
Members (including 2 new this quarter) that have joined
during this contract period so far and the procedure will
be followed for future new Affiliate Members. 114 DOCUSER
records for non-DOCLINE libraries were changed from full
Member to Affiliate Member. 14 closed libraries were
removed from the list of members. As of the end of this
quarter, January 31, 2002, the count is: 158 Members, 140
Affiliate Members, 298 total for the Pacific Northwest
region. There are 466 DOCUSER records for our region,
including 35 libraries that are closed and 133 libraries
that are neither Members nor Affiliate Members. (These
133 libraries are in DOCUSER because NLM supplied them
with an ILL some time in the past. The data for these
libraries are not kept up-to-date by NLM - nor do we keep
them up-to-date. It is impractical to try to maintain
them.)

4. Document Delivery

Susan Barnes updated the DOCLINE Tutorial to
incorporate the changes brought with version 1.3. The
update required revision to almost 75% of the tutorial -
essentially a new edition of it has been written and
published, with S. Barnes as the sole author. The former
co-author, Beth Carlin, has moved on to other
responsibilities.

Finding It on the Internet: Health Access for Elders,
a proposal of Oregon Health & Science University
(Dolores Judkins, P.I.) was selected for funding.
Although the start date for the project was November 15,
2001, processing by administrative offices at the UW and
OHSU caused delays. Beginning next quarter, progress
reports of this project will be included in this report.
The PNRML also agreed to support the travel of an outside
consultant (Susan Usitalo) who is conducting a follow-up
evaluation of a previous resource library project
assessing Alaska public health nurses' use of the
Internet. The resource library at University of Alaska,
Anchorage, is coordinating this project.

6. Communication

The PNR's redesigned web site premiered on December 4.
S. Barnes, Maryanne Blake, M. Boer and Catherine
Burroughs comprised the Web Group responsible for the
months-long review and new design of the site. The
following are some of the comments from network members
and others elicited by the site's debut:

"The new Web site is beautiful! You said
it would be up December 3 and it was! It is sleek,
efficient, and capable. Of course, I haven't yet viewed
it through the eyes of Lynx, Vischeck, and Bobby (not
to mention WAVE, A-Prompt, and W3C CSS Validator) but
it will be wonderful." Drexie Malone, graduate student,
University of Washington Information School.

"I just checked out your new website
today, and boy! I'm seriously impressed. This site is
well designed and attractive. It is easy to find
everything, even some stuff I didn't know I wanted to
find until I saw it on your site. In my opinion, this
site is a great example of what a useful Website should
be. Good job!" Mary Rainwater, University of
Washington.

"Really like the look of the revised
site. It is clean and things are easy to find. I am
sure that I will use your list of "Lots of links"
frequently. Thank you for including the Canadian Health
Network." Lea Starr, Manager, Western Regional Partner,
Canadian Health Network.

The Fall 2001 issue of the newsletter, Dragonfly, was
completed in December with four original articles. In
January the Winter 2002 issue came out with a new look in
keeping with the redesigned PNR Web site. As well as the
change in appearance a new feature, the Announcements
column, was added. See the User Feedback section for a
comment on the Dragonfly.
Due to a recent rash of spam messages invading HLIB-NW, a
policy change was made to the discussion list: postings
will no long be accepted from non- subscribers. More than
25 HLIB-NW subscribers sent positive comments about the
decision.

7. Regional Advisory Committee

8. Monitor region's programs

9. User Feedback

Feedback on Dragonfly:

"Outstanding _Dragonfly_ article on
making the web accessible for the disabled. May I make
12 copies to pass along to Madigan's web committee?
Yes, I'll add the URL, but I want to know the members
have a copy." Marcia I. Batchelor, MSLS, AHIP, Chief,
Medical Library, Madigan Army Medical Center.

PNRML librarians attended a presentation by Debra
Ketchell (Deputy Director, University of Washington
Health Sciences Library) on PrimeAnswers, an innovative
web-based information resource developed as a result of
an NLM Information Systems grant. Ms. Ketchell is the
P.I. on the grant.

Nancy Press worked with the NLM-funded consumer health
project at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The
project's target audience is seven immigrant and refugee
communities in the Seattle area: Oromo, Somali,
Ethiopian, Tigrean, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Latino.
The project's methodology is to train community trainers
who will tailor the curriculum and share with their own
communities. N. Press developed the curriculum template
<http://depts.washington.edu/ethnomed/HMCproject/HarborviewProjectClassTemplate.htm>
and then taught the curriculum to representatives of the
communities on Jan. 5. N. Press is also the lead for work
with the Latino community.

PNRML received 3 applications for Outreach Project
Awards. A committee of RML staff and external reviewers
read and rated the proposals. With NLM concurrence, 2
were selected for funding. Both projects-"Cyber Health
Camp" by the AHEC of Southwest Oregon (Roseburg, OR), and
"Cross Cultural Health Care Program Resource Center" by
the Pacific Medical Center (Seattle, WA) began
mid-quarter. Reports of each will be submitted with the
PNRML quarterly report beginning next quarter.

1. Outreach to Health
Professionals

N.
Press was selected by the Northwest Chapter of the
Society of Public Health Educators (SOPHE) to be the
region's CDCynergy trainer. N. Press will attend training
at CDC in February 2002 and will then train health
educators in health promotion program management,
strategy, and evaluation. N. Rambo participated in a
steering committee meeting of the Northwest Center for
Public Health Practice regional network on Jan. 15. This
meeting included members from the 6 states of the
partnership network: AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, and WY. In
addition, Distance Learning Coordinators and Health Alert
Network Coordinators from the states were also invited to
this meeting. Mr. Rambo gave a presentation on the role
of the NN/LM in serving the public health workforce in
the region, and invited the Distance Learning
Coordinators to be advisors-representing the information
and continuing education needs of the public health
workforce-to the PNRML. The initial response was
positive. Brief follow-up has netted 4 of the 5 in the
PNR region. (The remaining DLC, from Wyoming, is in the
Midcontinental Region. She, too, is potentially
enthusiastic about participating. Mr. Rambo explained the
regional jurisdiction to her and will put her in touch
with the Midcontinental RML, and inform the Claire Hamasu
and Kay McCloskey of the contact.)

2. Consumer Health
Information Services

Roy Sahali and N. Press presented on
outreach to underserved communities as part of a noon
hour lecture series at the University of Washington
Medical Center, Nov. 1, explaining how they have
worked in communities with different needs and
ways of communicating.

N. Press completed a first draft of a consumer health
information page for the IHS national web site, at the
request of Theresa Cullen, MD, MS, National Informatics
Consultant, Indian Health Service, Tucson, AZ. Steps
taken: 1) solicited topic suggestions from IHS personnel,
National Alaska Native/American Indian Nurses
Association, National Indian Education Association,
Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board priority
topics, 2) chose sites on topics, using Medlineplus
criteria with latitude in the case of easy to read
information, 3) in process of reviewing textual sites for
reading level and coding reading level score in html for
each site (view source to see the scores), 4) in process
of eliminating all web pages with reading score above 6th
grade, 5) made up the "help" page for consumers wanting
strategy help or wanting directions for further
information, and 6) demonstrated the pages to the
Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board for
review.

Initial response from IHS is positive. T. Cullen has
already shown the pages to the IHS Clinical Directors who
were grateful to have an easy-to-read web site available
for their patients. Future steps are: 1) receive feedback
from IHS and revise, 2) revise graphics and format to
increase the visual appeal, 3) test usability with a
small group, 4) ask for feedback from a larger group of
native community members and health educators, 5) revise
again, 6) put web page up where IHS will link to it, 7)
publicize web page, and 8) maintain web page.

We put up our first Spanish language page on our Web
site, with translation done by Javier Crespo of the New
England Region , and reviewed by Mario Javier Pineda, one
of our consumer health advisors. The page chosen to be
first is entitled, "¿Como puede saber si la información
le sirve?" or "Is this health information good for me?"
and is on the Web at <http://nnlm.gov/pnr/hip/informacion.html>

3. Training to Support
Electronic Access to Health Information
\

PNRML awarded a $500 mini-grant to Megan Sety of the
Center for Children with Special Needs, Children's
Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, WA, for
training sessions in Kennewick and Ellensburg, WA. The
hands-on workshops cover basic web searching skills,
locating quality information for families and patients,
and evaluation of health web sites, targeting health
professionals who serve families of special needs
children. The first session has been completed and the
Outreach Reporting Form is included in this report.

L. Milgrom taught 3 sessions of Keeping Up with PubMed
for the National Training Center and Clearinghouse, 2 in
Seattle (Jan. 28-29), and 1 in Portland (Jan. 31).

L. Milgrom demonstrated TOXNET and PubMed at the
ORAU/SIS booth at the Society of Risk Analysis meeting in
Seattle on Dec. 3.

N. Press exhibited at and gave a plenary talk at the
National Alaskan Native/American Indian Nurses
Association meeting. Meeting attendees were mostly
minority health professionals.

5. Technology Awareness and
Integration

6. Library
Improvement

The region's first group purchase of electronic
journals was finalized. Twenty-five libraries have
subscribed to 140 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
e-journals from Ovid. Libraries are from 4 of the 5
states in the region, plus two libraries from British
Columbia. Service started at the beginning of January and
initial reactions are favorable.

7.
Connections

R. Sahali
met several times throughout the quarter with
representatives of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest
Indians in support of a Telecommunications Consumer
Education project. He participated with ATNI staff in an
exhibit at the annual meeting of the National Congress of
American Indians, Nov. 26-29, in Spokane, WA. He used the
opportunity to network extensively, promote Tribal
Connections, and promote the health education resources
of the NLM and NN/LM.

Mr. Sahali was instrumental in helping to form the
Tech Tribes initiative with several local and regional
foundations. These foundations, with involvement of the
Washington State Governor's Office of Indian Affairs, are
collectively interested in helping to close the digital
divide among tribes in the state. Funds have been
allocated to implement a tribal visioning conference to
be held in the spring of 2002.

C. Enhancements

In Oct. 2002 a 3rd phase of the Tribal Connections
project was funded by the NLM Office of Health
Information Programs Development. The intent of this
phase is to focus on a small number of communities from
the 1st project phase to plan and implement a more
intensive training program as part of a
community-initiated health education/promotion program.
These case studies will serve to validate a model for
this community-based approach to health information
outreach; or, suggest an alternative model.

Project staff will be drawn from the regular PNRML
staff, with participation by Cathy Burroughs (Outreach
Evaluation and Resource Center), and a project evaluator
to be hired.

In Dec., staff met to develop a health information
outreach logic model to be applied in the cases to be
presented in this current phase of Tribal Connections.
The model is based on lessons learned from prior phases
of Tribal Connections. The model is the 1st project
deliverable to the National Network Office and to OHIPD.
A copy is attached to this report.

On Jan. 25, designated project staff met with a
facilitator to develop a project "map" of roles and
responsibilities (attached), and to sketch a project plan
and overall goals.

R. Sahali has screened the communities and identified
3 tribes to participate in this phase of the project: the
Samish, Anacortes, WA; Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla, Pendleton, OR; and the Nez Perce, Lapwai, ID.
Mr. Sahali will be the project lead for each of these
sites. A different PNRML librarian will serve as a
liaison to each of the 3 communities: The liaisons and
Mr. Sahali, will comprise the community-specific project
teams. Each 2-person team will determine, with their
community representatives, how the outreach model will be
implemented in their community.

D. NN/LM Web Service [Added Category]

During November, based on the fact that the majority
of words that people enter in the NN/LM search engine
seem to be health topics, we introduced a change in the
NN/LM search screens to make searching MEDLINEplus much
easier. Due to the vast variability of search words our
users enter, analyzing the logs to prove whether this
worked or not is a bigger project than we are prepared to
take on, but an eyeball analysis of recent logs indicates
that progress has been gained.

NN/LM Web
Service:Visits per Month

Year

November

December

January

2002

95,478

2001

86,781

75,480

77,360

2000

87,744

65,806

NN/LM Web
Service:/members/reports/
Transmitted

Year

November

December

January

2002

6,196

2001

6,233

4,506

8,265

2000

8,391

5,401

E. Administration, Staff and Other [Added
Category]

Three PNRML librarians (L. Milgrom, N. Press, M.
Blake) volunteered to spend a day each staffing a local
hospital library in Dec. Each considered the experience
worthwhile in helping them empathize with network
members.

L. Milgrom's 20th anniversary with the University of
Washington Libraries was recognized during a Health
Sciences Library All-Staff meeting in Dec. Appreciation
for Linda's contributions to NLM's online training and
outreach programs was expressed in messages from several
NLM staff members. PNRML staff provided some irreverence
to the observance.